The brief was incredibly exciting; we were to deliver a striking display that would attract the attention of the 60,000 plus visitors to ISE, while drawing an analogy between the elite performance of Epson’s installation projectors and the vision, drive and technical expertise that command Formula One.

With a huge audience of the world’s leading AV professionals to impress, the pressure to deliver technical excellence was immense. We motored ahead with our ideas, until we came up with the perfect formula. To capture the AV world’s imaginations, we turned to 3D Projection Mapping to generate a show stopping illusion that would be impossible not to notice! So, how did we do it?

Firstly we scanned the surface of a real Formula One racing car with 3D lasers, which gave us the exact measurements we needed to produce a flattened 2D-projection (UV) map.

Next, we developed the storyboard to show the car’s journey and, once finalised, set to work programming a video sequence to bring it to life at ISE. The footage is projected onto the car via ten Epson 3LCD projectors to create a continuous blended image. The impressive 2D racing car appears to power at top speed through a variety of carefully constructed impactful backdrops including futuristic cityscapes, and abstract cascades of colour. The magic is achieved by projecting the video sequence seamlessly onto the contours of the car’s 3D bodywork, to cleverly give an illusion of spinning wheels and the reflections of the car’s surroundings racing past against its bodywork.

Finally, we needed to install the exhibit at the Epson booth at ISE in Amsterdam. In a race against time to get the display running perfectly before the show opened this morning, the mclcreate team worked on-site to rig the projectors, program the interactive footage and ensure that the installation would stand up to the scrutiny of 60,000 AV professionals. Battling against strong winds, which blew through the continuously open doors of the giant exhibition hall, we realised that getting the projectors lined up to deliver a flawless image was going to be a little less straight forward than expected. But nine hours later, everything looked perfect!

The result is a bold stand-out piece that demands attention and instantly communicates the technological innovation, elite performance and forward-thinking expertise underpinning the Epson brand.

This was an exhilarating challenge for the team at mclcreate, and we’d like to say thank you to Epson for giving us the opportunity to work on and deliver this unique and thrilling project. Look out for the full Epson case study coming soon to the mclcreate website.

Signalling the start of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, the Standard Life Opening Event: Bloom, will transform Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square with projection mapping, animation and a newly commissioned musical score.